Trumpeter, Urban Farmer & Art Enthusiast. Brendan plays exclusively on trumpet mouthpieces custom made for him by Toshiaki Kameyama! All images on the site are copyright to Brendan. Please credit any useage, or ask.

Of course there are many other world class, great orchestral Principal Trumpeters but Adolph Herseth enjoys the greatest profile worldwide, of them all: and for good reason! This recording is one for every aspiring trumpeter and aficionado of great orchestral trumpet playing. I have just been sent this absolute gem from clarinettist Walter Brewster. This file of Solti conducting ‘Pictures At An Exhibition’ at the BBC Proms in 1981 & shows the great Adolph Bud Herseth at the height of his fame. This is a display of simply awesome power, strength and a man comfortable in the knowledge that for him, the trumpet was not a difficult instrument! What a brazen display of confidence…

The roar from the crowd at the end just says it all!

At a class at the Royal College of Music in 1984 the English trumpeter Philip Smith, Principal Trumpet of the New York Philharmonic, related a story. Phil started out as fourth trumpet in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Pretty awesome first job! Mr. Smith told our class that in the States, Herseth was akin to a god. He was a living legend and regarded as the best. If Herseth did something eveyone followed. Everyone wanted to play the same trumpet, mouthpiece, etc. Herseth got chatting to Phil and Phil confessed that he was really bored in the CSO. He had nothing to play, nothing to get his teeth into, down on fourth. Herseth said, okay, I’ll give you some extra playing. The concert was ‘Pictures’ and Herseth pencilled some rings around sections in ‘The Great Gate Of Kiev’. Phil Smith was very excited by the time the concert arrived. Now was his chance! Solti conducting etc. He picked up the trumpet in readiness only to realise that Herseth was playing all those bits as well! He didn’t believe in bumpers, by all accounts. He couldn’t understand why first trumpets didn’t want to play all the music!